Outlook outbox sending messages when outbox is empty

I have 23 'read' receipts which my outlook explorer unsuccessfully attempts to send. They do not show up in my outbox. As a result, I can no longer send email. I operate on Windows 2003. Each website recommended to me for this problem has been rejected by my laptop.
When I get to the 'delete' part of the process, I get a pop-up with an X with an 'abort message'. So far I have downloaded Outlook spy also howtooutlook.com. Neither of them worked.